Skipcool3

No fighting required BAHumbug.
Complain here:

[email protected]

UKtravelbear

You should really complain to your MP or directly to Theresa May as the responsible minister.

She as Home Secretary is responsble for the border and ensuring that the UKBA has the resources to do the job they are required by law to do (or to reduce those requirements to meet the resources available)

BAHumbug

I want to cause trouble and not send email...

So far I've managed to waste 5 senior BAA staff members time and I intend to demand to speak to the senior immigration officer when I eventually get to border control....

If more people did this their collective hands would be forced

Skipcool3

UKtravelbear...... BAHumbug.

Cause trouble away, however.......

You will get nowhere with an MP or Teresa May unless you have complained FIRST.......

And what do you think venting spleen at a senior officer will do?
Stock reply last time I spoke to one:

"We have all available staff working, further, the size of the UKBA is being reduced by x%(can't remember) due to government policy to reduce costs"


So complain to the UKBA first, then follow it up with MP// Minister // David Cameron// Norman Baker (Transport minister)

BAHumbug

I didn't say I was venting spleen - that never works. But taking up staff time does because you collectively gum up more and more of the machine until it falls over completely and then something simply has to be done. Think of it as a sort of 'passive resistance'.

The correct reply to the senior officer, which reduced mine to silence, was to point out that any competent person ensures that their organisation can react to difficulties like this. He didn't like it much either when I told him it was outrageous that I was being prevented from entering my own country because of his department's incompetence. I'm aware that, ultimately, I got in (I'm now posting from Humbugsville) but they are hindering my free movement around the EU and into my own country without just cause.

Lastly, we all pay a considerable amount on our tickets which goes to the Home Office or BAA - perhaps if people collectively (spot the theme here) started suing for the return of that money something would be done, and quickly. It's not relevant whether or not your case will succeed - small claims summonses are cheap and quick to issue and cause lots of aggravation for large bureaucracies.

I'm glad I'm home (I timed it and from leaving the plane to clearing the UK Border took me just short of 2 hours) but the queues were still there and when I joined them they were already reaching around the corner to Gate 20.

I'm aware my post sounds rant-like, but I genuinely believe that the only way to get things like this dealt with, and quickly, is for mass complaints and for enough people to cause enough trouble that it's easier to fix the mess than fob people off.

BAH

(and thankyou for the Email address - I'm aware you are trying to help !)

Skipcool3

BAH~ I'm as exasperated as you are and agree with a lot that you say.....

~ and dreading flying back in to London on Monday evening ~ ~surely I shouldn't be dreading returning to my own country~???

Trouble is I can't see things getting any better.

You will see in some of my previous replies my thoughts on paying massive APD and getting this shabby, shabby service.

paulwuk

Nice big queue at t3 this morning.


Baa woman preventing people using the iris queue (claiming its special assistance only). Iris machines appear to be there and appear to be on (green lights).

Update - one worked one had crashed, queue now forming.

^ iris

Who can I complain about SL at BAA?

Update 2 - sat in AA arrivals lounge feeling refreshed and slightly calmer about the aggressive lies the BAA agent was spouting.

There was a bit of a scuffle while I was in the e-passport queue, someone walked into a kid or something.

Easter is over, they've run out of excuses.

dubbin

Good on you, bah

marcusm1

How true I don't know but would be interesting if it did happen, from this page:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...on-queues.html

"ruralgilbert

Yesterday 11:02 PM

I read a report some two/three weeks ago that 200 or so passengers at Birmingham who had been waiting for hours had refused to be kettled any longer and just walked en masse through border control.

A UKBA person was quoted as saying "If we get a runner we don't stop them - we are not trained in restraint techniques".

How long before this happens again?"

thegoderic

The Flounge is the only really functional part of the building IMHO.

My assessment if an airport says that the more tensa barriers you need, the worse it is and T5 seems to have most of the world's supply arrayed around the place.

UKtravelbear

Who said I wanted to cause trouble or vent spleen?

There is no requirement to complain first to UKBA before writing to /contacting your MP or direct to Theresa May. They are not some appeal body like the ombudsman that requires you to make a lower level complaint first.

MPs have direct access to senior UKBA officials and any competent MP (yes we do have lots of them) will write to them and Theresa May. You may even want to write to Keith Vaz Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee asking his committee to investigate this particular issue.

And rather than a petition re 'saving' IRIS (that helps few people) one regarding more UKBA staff (which would help many people) may generate far more support

northernvilla

I was at T5 on Wednesday morning at about 7am, the queues were quite bad, I had not seen this thread so could did not take any photos. I was connecting to a MAN shuttle but wanted to "land" myself so I could use the T5 Arrivals Lounge first. The queues for connecting passengers was relatively short.

I was directed to the Fast Track queue (I hold a UK passport but was not asked). Once I was in this queue, I saw the e-passport gates were working (all 3) and opted for that. I cleared the Border relatively quickly once I was in the right queue but getting to that position is extremely difficult if the queues into the immigration hall are blocking access.

I just dread to see what it will be like during the Olympics, I will certainly try and avoid travelling both into/out of the UK during that time, but I also think that travelling within the country will extremely frustrating. I cannot imagine any IOC/Olympic VIP's will suffer at all, and infact all that will happen is that the immigration situation will be an embarrassment for the UK that will be broadcast on a world scale.

marcusm1

Item from the telegraph online today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...ion-chaos.html
Seems like Alistair Campbell got caught up in it last night, seems like things might be heating up.
Did make me laugh when they said they're meeting with airlines next month. What the hell's the point of that.....
Note to Theresa May - Find another 4-5 people out of a population of 65 million to man the borders NOW!

Andriyko

It amazes me that they have not come to this realization yet...
It's been like this for weeks, they are aware of teh poblem, and yet are not able to man all desks...

LondonAndy

OK, I haven't read all 15 pages of comments in detail, but is this predominantly a problem at LHR and, in particular T5? How come I don't see the same problems at LGW for example? If it was a commercial organisation that was under-resourced I guess people would be moved around pretty quickly...

I understand LGW is getting a number of new e-passport machines that are significantly faster than the original ones (which took upto 40 seconds to get a person through).